Soul Exhaustion & Soul Care: A Journey Two Years in the Making
It’s hard to believe that after two years of work, I am on the brink of publishing the Soul Exhaustion & Soul Care Workbook. This project has been an incredible journey, and I am forever grateful to my team. They dedicated two years of their lives to bringing this workbook to life, and their thoughtfulness and commitment humble me.
One aspect I am especially proud of is that every single member of our team identifies as having lived experience—whether that’s suicide loss, mental health struggles, suicide attempts, or neurodivergence. We didn’t just have a “lived experience advisory board” we were a lived experience team from start to finish. I believe that heart and authenticity put this project in the winner’s circle before it ever runs its first race.
Preparing for the First Pilot
Speaking of running our first race, we are now preparing to launch the pilot program for the workbook. At 270 pages, the workbook is substantial, so we’ve uploaded it to a virtual platform. This approach allows us to evaluate its effectiveness as a program while also tracking usage on the back end.
Don’t worry—we cannot see anyone’s personal writing. But we will be able to see which Soul Exhaustion Appraisals participants are using and which areas of the workbook they are gravitating toward. Alongside that, we’ll conduct program evaluations at 4, 8, and 12 weeks to truly understand its impact.
Piloting With My Community: Long-Term Suicide Loss Survivors
I am thrilled to share that our first pilot will be with long-term suicide loss survivors. This choice is deeply personal. While I have the honor of working with many communities—construction workers, first responders, and beyond—I am not of those communities.
I am of the long-term suicide loss survivor community. This is my home. This is where the very concept of Soul Exhaustion was born—from my own journey as a loss survivor. There are very few resources for those of us further along in our healing, and it felt only right to begin with the community that has supported and uplifted me—and this project—from the very beginning.
If the pilot goes as well as we hope, we will expand to other communities in the future. But for now, our focus is on honoring and learning from the community that gave life to Soul Care and Soul Exhaustion.
How to Get Involved
The pilot program will launch in September, and we will only be able to accept 60 participants. If you’re interested in participating, subscribe and watch for our newsletter for the interest form coming soon and sign up quickly to secure your spot.
Thank you for walking this journey with me. Your support and encouragement have carried this project forward, and I can’t wait to share more as we take this exciting next step.
